VIr-US: THE AMERICAN
by Elias Clodi'i
Summary: Jason Webb was an ordinary boy, until a train crash rips away from him the ability to do anything, destroying almost every part of his body, leaving only his brain as a preservable organ. Pressured by his parents, scientists keep his mind alive, and hack him into the newly classified "Lethal Game", Sword Art Online. Faced with the option of Fight or Die, will he decide to burn?
1. Chapter 1

SAO

Infiltration

I was surrounded by...nothing. No sights, no sounds, no sensation. Only thought. Like sleep. Perhaps I was sleeping, perhaps I was just waiting, waiting to wake up, waiting for my alarm to go off, to send me to school.

I decided then that if I was, it was a very boring dream. I had not done anything, I was not walking anywhere. I simply was.

Then, there was a flash. And then things started to happen, images passing before my vision, occurring around me. Slowly, sensation came to me, images rushed into my mind, feelings of air brushing against my skin.

I took a breath, chest heaving as I snapped my eyes open to see stars. Pain shot through my mind and I screamed, my hands flying to my head. I sat up, stumbling in the dark, and fell again to my knees. I groaned, and felt like my head was expanding.

And I began to remember. A train, light, a sound, the car not starting.

A sudden feeling of disconnection. Separation.

I remembered, most importantly, one very important fact.

I remembered that my name was Jason Webb, fourth brother in a family, athlete, and academic star.

I remembered that I should have died. I remembered watching the frame of a car buckle towards me in an instant.

The sounds of a stream reached my ears, and I crawled through the grass, ignoring the pain in my head, and looking into the water. Starlight was all I saw, pinpoints of crystal far above, and the faint outline that was my head. I groaned, hitting the dirt in frustration, and sat up, looking for the train tracks, looking for the wreck of my car, for anything at all.

I saw only trees.

I gritted my teeth. I had been in a city when the train hit, and the only explanation that made sense to me was that I was indeed dreaming, and now, the dream had started to get interesting.

I found my way through the dense forest to find myself on the edge of a town of some kind, and I relaxed as the sight of the lights in the windows came into view. There were people in the town, off in the distance, the shadows passing in front of the window's gave that much away, and I desperately wanted answers.

I got them, when a red disk started blinking to my right.

I stepped back, only to find that the disk had moved with me, and I hesitantly reached out a hand, touching the disk. It felt warm, and hard, and suddenly, with a flash, a hole in the world seemed to tear open, as a screen snapped into being in front of me.

I was startled to see a pristine laboratory, and a scientist in front of some kind of web-cam. He sighed in releif when he saw me, then seemed to steel himself for something, against something he didn't want.

He ran a hand through his graying hair, and greeted me coldly.

"Hello Jason, good to see that you made it in alive."

I blinked. "What do you mean? What's going on?"

The scientist leaned towards whatever screen he was watching me on. I figured it was a normal computer, I could see a mouse over to his right.

"How much do you remember, Jason?"

I hesitated. "I-I remember my name, that I have six brothers, two parents, I come from the desert somewhere, and, and I remember a train crash, I think. I also think that I'm dreaming."

He chuckled, but there was no joy or mirth in that laugh, only a strange sort of pity, that made my hair stand on end.

"No Jason, you're not dreaming. You crashed. Almost none of your body was salvageable."

I glanced at my hands in disbelief, and the scientist, or psychologist, or whatever he was, grimaced.

"Listen carefully Jason. When your car crashed, the vast majority of your body was shattered, broken, and, in short, it looked like you had absolutely no chance of survival. There were only three things that were still functioning, your heart, your lungs, and your brain. Out of everything. Some of the police officers offered to bring in pictures of the crash to persuade you, but I don't think you want to see yourself that mangled."

I stared at him.

"Then what's going on?" I asked. "I'm pretty sure I have a body right now, even if you're on a screen that's floating in the air, I can still _feel_."

I picked up a branch to prove it, flipping it end over end, twisting and catching it.

The scientist nodded.

"It was a suggestion of your teacher, or, well, mentor, or whatever. He knew your potential, and he wasn't willing to let you die if your brain was still working perfectly fine, completely intact, as near as we could tell. Your parents, when they heard his suggestion..well, they were very strongly for it."

"In short, Jason, to remedy the fact that you will likely never wake up out here, in the real world, and you definitely wont be able to move...we hacked you into one of the most publicized games ever known to man. I'm sure you know of which game I speak."

My breath caught in my throat. I had indeed heard, and the virtual air wheezed out of didgital lungs, a hesitant reply.

"Sword Art Online." I whispered, my hands hanging limp at my sides.

The scientist nodded. "Yes. The very first Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Game. Congratulations, on your chance to live."

I snarled at the man on the screen, hands balled into fists.

"Why? What do I need to know to get along here?"

The scientist sighed.

"Listen, there were only two choices, let you die, or give you a chance to live, even if it is in a game."

"What happens when I die? Do I re-spawn? Or do I get sent back to my unfeeling, unseeing mind?"

The scientist winced.

"The creator of SAO went nuts." He said simply, "He rigged the game. If you die in there...nothing we can do would be able to save your. Your brain would be instantly fried by the Nerve Gear. You don't do anything.

"Except die, that is. The game will make sure that you do that pretty well."


	2. Chapter 2

SAO-VIr-US

Chapter 2

I stepped into the town I'd seen boiling with rage. A brain. That's all that I was. Everything that I could be, was now defined by the limits of the game, the limits of this world. I wiped a tear that tried to come to my eye, and I wished that I could remember the names that went with the faces of my brothers. I could see them, but apparently, there had been damage to my brain in the crash, I couldn't remember their names. Now, they were just five other Webbs, each with their own events that I remembered them for.

I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand up straight. Apparently, some of the people here hadn't taken the news that this was a Death Game very well. Some were crying in corners, some were screaming, some stood in shock, and others rushed around weapon shop, haggling over prices.

I frowned, and turned to see if there was a sheath on my back. Nothing, no weapon, nothing really. I hesitated, unsure of how to access the inventory I surely had. This had started as a game, supposedly, but I still found that hard to believe, with the stones under my feet, the wind that occasionally brushed my skin.

I decided to watch one of the bartering men, to see what they did. It didn't take long to figure out that a quick swipe with the right hand summoned the menu, and soon I was navigating the window, the foreign and impossible plane of hard material in the air.

I looked through my inventory, and pulled a bronze sword from the air. It was of a pretty miserable quality, I noticed quickly, and another quick look confirmed that I had a money source as well.

I shrugged, and strode over to where the weapon's salesman was, sword strapped to my back.

"What are your prices for swords?" I asked, figuring that the guy was an NPC.

He smiled up at me, standing to gesture to the weapons behind him.

"What are you interested in?"

I frowned. "Shorter, double sided. A Katana if necessary, thinner blade."

The NPC beamed at me, and I had the irrational desire to hit him in the face. Hard. And to hit him as hard as possible.

The large, rotund character picked three blades, and pulled them off the wall.

"These are our speed swords, would you like to look at another kind?"

I sighed, and nodded. "Can I give them a swing?"

The Merchant nodded enthusiastic, and gestured to the ones on the back wall.

"Feel free to try them all!"

I grinned for the first time that day, and lifted a sword.

I strode confidently through the town to the place that others were referring to as the "wilds", the place where the monsters were, the place where, apparently, you had a much greater chance of dying. At that point, I was still too stunned to care. I was already dead. Or, well, dead to the world.

I arrived at the gates to the town to find another group gathering as well, strapping on armor, something I still hadn't gotten, and glancing about grimly.

One man started to speak, to me, gesturing, and for a moment, I was worried that whatever program had hacked me in hadn't been rigged to let me hear other players, but then the words kicked in, lagging slightly, and not quite in the right range of notes.

"Hey, you, you have any experience?"

I blinked, folding my arms. "Depends. None here, plenty out in the acutal world."

At least, that was what I had been assuming by the ease that I had been manipulating my chosen sword, a thin blade, meant for stabbing and slashing.

The man at the gate paused, and it took me a little while to realize that there was a lag for him as well. Apparently, the language-to language translators weren't working very well right then.

He responded once my message had ended, a frown on his face.

"So you're still level one?"

I nodded. "That I am. Have you guys figured out how this game works?"

The man scoffed. "how have you even lived this long in the game?"

I planted my feet, nose twitching. I really didn't like the guy at this point.

"Some of us got thrown in here a little late." I snarled. "Myself included."

The man glanced at me. "We cant afford to have any inexperienced fighters, we need to level up fast, and not only that, we want to get home."

A pain stabbed into my chest, and I winced. They could go home.

The man caught the expression, but he simply thought that rejection was the only thing eating at me.

"Go fight with someone else newbie, we don't have time for useless Americans."

My eyes narrowed, and I drew the sword slowly, the man shaking his head and pulling his own from his sheath.

"you know you can't hurt anyone in a safe zone right?"

I hadn't, but I didn't care.

I charged forward, blade arcing down, slashing again and a gain. The stronger man lunged forward, and I deflected his blade effortlessly, driving my blade point-first into his chest, sending him careening down the streets. Another of his companions lunged at me, but his guard was low.

Very low.

A hit to his head sent him rolling in the dust, and I advanced on the first man, who was quickly stumbling to his feet, sword drawn. I parried a savage blow to my side, my arm going briefly numb from impact, and slashed downwards, taking his leg out from under him.

I held the blade to his throat, breathing hard, hands shaking from pain and rage.

"I don't need to be a higher level than you, understand?"

I sheathed the sword, and marched out into the darkness.

A glow to my back caught me by surprise, and I barely dodged in time to get out of the way of the first man's lunge.

But not the impossibly fast transition to a cut across my abdomen.

Suddenly, I was the one rolling across the ground.

Groaned from the impact, surprised to find that my hands hadn't suffered any damage, let alone my face.

The Asian Man stepped up, his large triangular blade pointed loosely at my chest, his face neutral as he thought something over.

"What is your name boy?"

I sat up, holding my sword out to the side.

"Jason."

He frowned. "An American name."

I nodded.

The Asian frowned. "You fight better than we would expect of an American, from what we hear, most of your people are fat, and lazy."

The corners of my mouth twitched upwards despite the frustration I felt.

"From what I've heard," I told the taller man, "All Asians are short."

The Asian hesitated briefly, then cut to the base of what he wanted to know.

"How did you get the game, from what we'd heard, only 10,000 copies were sold, and almost all were in Japan, or on the Mainland."

I winced.

"That's for me to know."

The Asian frowned, sheathing his sword, extending a hand.

"You might come in handy American. I'm Hirou Kayabashi, the leader of the party at the moment."

I frowned soon after he said that.

"How long have you been...playing?" I asked. I couldn't bring myself to think of this as a game, even with the green bar above my head, declaring that I had 200 health points, and the opalescent boxes that listed my weapons, and name.

The man frowned. "Two hours."

"So you figured this out?"

He nodded.

I glanced at his sword, slowly sheathing my own.

"Can you teach my how to do that sword thing? I've never seen that before."

The man smiled, swiping to bring up his own menu.

"That I can...if you'll join our party. We plan on leveling up fast enough to find the way to the next floor."

I nodded. I understood their motive, even though it wasn't why I wanted to fight. There was no point in finding a way out for me.

He pushed a circle on his menu, and a dialogue box popped up in front of me, spurring me to jump back in surprise. I shook my head. It was an invitation to join the group, and a blue dot on the left hand side seemed to be the affirmative response.

I pressed the blue dot, and the man smiled at me. His health bar appeared below my own, along with the six names of the others in the group, and their health.

I had the least health, and I was also the only one who was still at a level one.

I grimaced again, considering the fact that these terms would be the only way I could think of myself anymore. It seemed very wrong.

I nodded to Hirou. "Ready when you are."

We headed out into the tall grass, and Hirou explained the World of SAO to me.

"Basically, we are on the bottom floor of a 100 floor floating castle. Each floor has a pillar at one end," he gestured to a column that rose to meet the sky off in the distance, "and somewhere in that pillar, there is a room that contains that floor's boss, who has to be beat before one can advance to the next floor."

I nodded, shaking my head in disbelief. "This is crazy." I muttered.

The taller Asian raised an eyebrow, then nodded.

"Anyhow, there is no magic in SAO. Critics wondered if you could pull an RPG off without Magic, but they did pretty well, the Sword Skills, what I did to you in Beginners Town, compensate."

I was secretly glad that there was no Magic to worry about. The fact that there were impossible creatures, in an impossible floating castle, in a game that felt like life, was enough weirdness for me.

"How do the Sword Skills work?" I asked.

Hirou smiled briefly.

"You pause for a moment, holding the moment before a strike, and basically, you just think that you want the sword 'on', and the Game Engine takes the information from your brain, activating the sword. When the Sword Skills are activated, your entire body moves farther and faster."

I nodded, intrigued by the concept.

"What skills did you have in the Real Word?" The Asian asked.

I frowned. "Fighting, writing, tracking, sculpting, running."

Hirou tapped his chin, eyes scanning the grass around us.

"Tracking you say?"

I nodded, glancing up at the apparently simulated night sky above us.

"Yeah, though it wouldn't do much good in this lighting."

One of the other Asian men turned to me. "Nighttime bring more monsters out, and more monsters means more XP. It's dangerous though, that's why there are so many of us."

Hirou nodded. "It's also why we were hesitant to drag you along."

I grimaced. "I knocked three of you back as I recall."

He nodded. "True, but the lower your level, the less damage your attack does. You would be exceptional out in the outside world, but things work differently in here."

My eyes caught onto a dark shape in the grass, and I drew my sword, ready to strike.

"What is it?" a third man asked, his dark hair tied in a ponytail.

"A beastie." I said simply, and activated my sword the way that Hirou had explained.

I charged, sh\earing through the grass, blade slashing up through the head of something that seemed to be a Warthog.

To my surprise, it didn't fall over.

It exploded into dozens of crystalline shards.

Three other Warthogs were waiting behind the first, and I spun, shearing my blade through the head of the first, then moving on to drive my sword into the chest of the second boar. The third managed to head-but me, and I fell backwards, my health dropping, something that I found unnerving. A brief moment of pain, and then nothing except a depleted bar.

I stood, growling, and leapt, activating my sword as I came down, driving the blade down into the Warthog's back.

Hirou nodded from the edge of the clearing.

"Pretty good. Now, let's go find something a little larger."

I nodded, and smiled despite the frustration I felt at the scientists of the "Real World", as I watched a thin gold band stretch out. XP earned, one more monster to level two.


End file.
